The invasion of Ulduar

As of last night, it finally occurred – The Rats headed into Ulduar. Well, with 3 slots filled by members of another guild (hi, guys!!) but into Uld at last! We went merrily forth driving our vehicles over hordes of Dark Iron Dwarves, knocked down buildings, blew up towers, and…

…got our heads handed to us by Flame Leviathan.

Not to fear, however! After a couple more wipes and discovery of what that whole Flame Jets ability did, and why it was important to interrupt it, we were triumphant!! Our first boss in Uld, down!  Since none of us had planned on success we then were at a loss for what to do next. Did we head to the right for optional boss #1 (Razorscale)? Did we  head to the left for optional boss #2 (Ignis)? No, of course not, we went straight down the hallway hoping to defeat the boss that would allow us further into the instance! Alas, the Deconstructor’s playful ways left us…deconstructed, and we retired for the night vowing vengeance. However, tomorrow is another day, and tonight we will be triumphant and all that! The raid leader has even done some homework this time!

We begin our serious pursuit of the “The Siege of Ulduar” achievement tonight!

Droolingly,

- Hawkwind

The glorious return!!

We are officially moved, and have PCs hooked back up and everything. We’ve had about enough of RL, and are ready to return to the REAL important stuff. As of October 1 we should be back to our regular schedule, trying to set up heroics for now until we can get a full Raid group back together. We look forward to seeing everyone around again! Long live the Rats!!

We’re Back!!!

So, family emergency appears to be over, we are finally back home and ready to start rolling again! Not the world’s smoothest 2 weeks off, but life appears to be stabilizing enough that we can re-immerse outselves. We will be re-visiting our raiding schedule, as RIR currently seems to have the Summertime Blues (TM) and very light guild attendance…hey, even the GM and her faithful sidekick have been MIA, right? So we may be changing our raiding schedule and re-emphasising Heroics until Labor Day or so. We will keep everyone posted. Props to Nehe and Obeah for keeping it all running while we were out of town!

- Hawk and Lor

Real Life Happens

Just a quick update, for those who are wondering. We had an illness in the family up North, and spent the last few days addressing that. The family member is still in the hospital, so we may be sporadic in attendance for a while. You guys just carry on following Nehemiah and Obeah, and we’ll play catch-up with you all when we get settled back in! Clear Naxx for us while we are in and out!

- Hawk (and Lor)

So Far, So Good!

A picture says a thousand words, yes? The Rats have officially joined the raiding world! Our 3-ish hour investment on Sunday paid off with a full clear of the Arachnids, and only several wipes! The boss we had the most trouble with was actually the first: Anub’rekhan…it took us a little bit to figure out spacing and then to recognize that kiting was actually inefficient compared to just tanking our way through Locust Swarm, but in the end we prevailed! The emo goddess of death, Grand Widow Faerlina,  only wiped us out once, and then only because the tank was placed improperly *sniffle*. As for Maexxna, can you say First Try???

I knew you could And that without a single death throughout the fight due to fabulous healing from Lor and Majan. Special props go to Nehemiah, Kara and Krusr for giving us the strats we needed to get through the quarter! Just for giggles and grins we then went off to take out Patchwerk, just to test our gear and DPS numbers. The results?

The only souls beneath 2K DPS were your tanks, yours truly and Bojengle. Altogether a very nice run. Tuesday night will be Arachnid again, followed by Plague Quarter. If you haven’t signed up for one of these runs yet, do so soon…Tues night is already full, and Sunday is filling! Come join us at Naxx!

Enthusiastically,

- Hawk

And away we go!

After nearly two years of existence, today is the first day in which the Rats enter a Level 80 Raid instance. It has been a bit of a rocky road – we’ve gone through nearly 100 new members, that we have kept only about a quarter of. We’ve had a guild break-up and a guild reunion. We’ve had marriages, babies, surgeries, funerals, job changes and graduations – in a peculiar way, the Rats are a large, extended family. And we are happy to call each and every one of you a Rats Family Member.

So, today, Naxxramas! Just relax, enjoy yourselves, and be aware that above all we are here to have a good time – the ultimate goal is not 25-man Ulduar, but a post raid celebration after ANY particular raid run. We’re sure it is going to be a blast.

Sincerely,

The Rats Leadership Team

Voices…I hear Voices

So, once again, we are preparing for our Daily Heroic. And, once again, when Lor and I join the party, no one can hear us. Why, you ask? Because of a lovely little glitch within WoW’s chat client that makes your VC capability cease to exist if you have changed toons since starting WoW…something Lor and I do roughly 247 times per day. After one too many frustrating experiences, I have finally done the unthinkable, crossed us over into Uber-Guild territory, spent REAL MONEY on something in-game.

We bought a Ventrilo Server.

And I’ll be darned if it hasn’t been working like a charm. Suddenly, I can hear everyone! They can all hear me! We are no longer losing critical instructions preceding boss fights! OK, Lor still sounds like an 8-year old girl in reform school, but she sounds like that in Real Life, so what the heck

Instructions for signing up for the Vent Server are located within the Guild Info in-game if you are interested in signing up and chatting away. Currently it is only a 15-man server, if it appears that isn’t working for us we will look into a larger one.

And, yes, it does cost real money, so we are going to create the possibility of guildies helping out with the cost if they so desire. No guild participation requirements of any kind, it doesn’t cost a lot so a $5 donation is really significant, and the money will ONLY go straight to the server company, not to the Hawk-And-Lor-Retirement Fund. Feel free to pitch in if so inclined, otherwise just slap your headset on and join the fun. Donations can go here.

Play requirements, you ask? Only one – if you’re going to be raiding with us make sure you have the client installed and can at least hear us issuing instructions. We’d prefer that everyone be chat-capable, but make sure you at least know where we are going and what we are doing next.

Grab the client here, get the credentials in-game, sign in and check out the whole world of typing-free communication! I am thinking this might catch on…

- Hawk

The Friends and Families of Rodents Plan

We frequently get “cold calls” – random /whispers from folks who are trying to join the Rats. We will chat with these folks, and I will almost always never bring them on board, while Loralia will sometimes take a chance on someone who can put a sentence or two together. But, for the Rats, the way to build a guild (it rhymes!) is via the Friends and Families of Rodents Plan.

The FFORP is pretty simple – the best way to integrate a person into the Rats is to have some foundational relationship to build on. Something that enables you to have common ground with the folks you will be grindin’ for hours with. And this has worked so well for us over the nearly 2 years we’ve been around that we have never attempted a “recruitment” drive for longer than a month straight, and even then wound up purging most of the results of that effort. So, to anyone who might be wondering about how we’ve developed a tight-knit competent group of semi-casual raiders, rather than hardcore fanatics – here is how it got done.

1. Nehemiah – Lor and I started with one of our closest friends, a person who had never touched WoW or other MMOs, but was enough of a computer geek that we thought he might dig it. We thought right, and through his early career he started working diligently at recruiting – at the same time as I began raiding my formerly Alliance counterpart guild for…

2. Obeah – One of many introduced to us by the original TFoN guild, and an instant hit on our side of the fence. His ability to exercise patience and reasonableness made him a perfect fit for our developing officer corps, as he manages to bring a whole series of Alliance folks over to the Dark Side (TM) via Hordie alts,  leaving Nehe free to go out into the world and recruit…

3. Laphroig/Karasharra – one of a few exceptions to our FFORP plan, Nehe’s find out in the wilds of Arathi makes it work through attitude and sheer competence. At the same time, Laph also introduced us to…

4. Santu/Calivan – his co-worker and co-conspirator in the world of WoW. His early Warlock hijinks (back when he still played a Warlock) and his commitment of insane hours of play endeared him to the rest of the Rats. If that wasn’t enough, he also brought us…

5. Populous/Brightarc – the nephew of and spiritual successor to Br. Calivan, whose drive to be the perfect player introduced the rest of us to a big, bad world of class guides and data mining. And if all that wasn’t enough, he also presented us with…

6. Bojengle – Our walking, talking proof that Death Knights Can Tank. Not content to rest on his laurels, Populous decided to also bring along…

7. Ceirra – his sister, also running a DK (I sense a trend here…) and helping to maintain the Estrogen content within the ranks. She, in turn, decided to bring in…

8. Parlzul – her husband, A multi-80, multi-server veteran who just so happened to be running a Rogue on Mok’Nathal. Undeterred by the success of Brightarc, Bo decided to start a trend of his own, and brought in…

9. Majan – a co-worker of his and NOT a DK, but a competent Priest (Yay!). Never fear, though, the extended Santu family isn’t done yet, as Parzul now brings in…

10. Maerwynn – his own brother, and yet another addition to the RIR DK ranks. Welcome aboard, Maerwynn!

Follow all that?

Thanks to our other efforts and our sister relationship with TFoN we’ve got a pretty healthy guild roster right now…but check the list above, and you’ll see most of the membership that has made the Rats what we are, as well as the majority of the folks that will be heading into Naxx.

The Friends and Families of Rodents Plan – guaranteed to work at LEAST as well as 99% of multi-level marketing schemes.

Longwindedly,

- Hawk

LEET LOOTz Policy Changes

Yes we’ve gotten too big for our britches.  *sigh*

With dual specs we decided it was time to move with the changes, spring forth into action, not be afraid of the mountain, close our eyes and jump and all those other pithy sayings about embracing change.

First Change:  Main Spec vs. Off Spec

Once long long ago in an age of innocence for the Rats, we had a policy of one Need per instance until everybody had a turn.  Then we could start over. This doesn’t seem to work in upper level instances where sometimes you are only looking for that special Axe of Kill All The Monsters with One Stroke.  And a lot of times you aren’t the only one wanting it.  So our new policy?  COMMUNICATION!  With a few addendums….if the item is for your main spec AND an upgrade, by all means, state your intentions then roll a Need on it.  IF the item is for your Off spec then let’s discuss.  If nobody else needs/wants it for their main spec then it’s up for grabs for those 2nd specs. Again, state your intentions and we can decide as a group.  As always, all enchanters in the group should roll a greed on every item that drops: green, blue or purple.

Second Change:  Wipe Limitation

Alas some heroics and raid instances are proving more difficult than we are used to.  To avoid frustration and name calling (mainly me calling Hawk a mother loving bleep bleep bleep), I thought that putting in a wipe limitation would be the ideal.   We’ve decided that our limit will be 5.  If after 5 wipes we can’t get it done, then we go back to square one.  We discuss the fight and make sure we’re just not being stupid.  We get better gear.   We get more experience.  We come back.  We KICK its ASS.  Then we dance the dance of joy under the rain of blood pouring down on our little heads.

Third Change:  Repair Bills

Going back to our age of innocence in Azeroth when we were just wee little babes fighting the Fang Gang in Wailing Caverns….good times… Repair bills just weren’t that hard on our economic belts.  Now times have changed and even I the cloth and leather wearing Druid that I am, am finding that repair bills are costing me over 20 gold after all those wipes.  I can’t even imagine if I was wearing plate!  *shiver*  In light of this, we are now providing guild supported armor repair.  You will now have available to you:  Mouse $0 (Sorry you still have to prove yourself), Rat $25/day, Cave Rat $50/day, Lemming $75/day, ROUS $100/day.

So this our new policy.  Want more?  Something I didn’t see or consider?  Let me know.  I’m good with your opinions.  Give it to me baby!

Lootingly,

Loralia

The Genius Among Us

For every 10 blogs like ours – infrequently updated, meandering around, not topic-specific – there is a single example of a “real” blog – one that is professional in presentation, has tons of good info, can dip into game mechanics without requiring an Engineering degree (Gnome, Goblin, or otherwise). These blogs are worth their weight in gold, metaphorically speaking, since they don’t actually weigh anything. BRK had a blog like that, until he went off to farm Wife Rep in that curious MMO known as Real World. And another blog like that is Big Bear Butt.

Now, why, you may ask, am I referring you all to a Druid-specifc blog written by an ALLIANCE player of all things? Well, there is plenty of good gameplay info there. Tons of stuff about balancing real life and WoW. Some amusing interplay between the author and his wife. BUT, the real reason I want you to go there is this…I was preparing to write up our official “Rats Policy” on Raiding. You know, how we, being a casual guild, are going to handle raid scheudling, raid activity, absences from scheduled runs, etc…and that beautiful bear went and did it for me. If you’re going to be raiding with the Rats, here is your introduction to how Lor and I feel about raids:

Raiding Rules as a Casual Guild

Some times it is better to be lucky than good Read it up, digest it, and feel free to let Lor or I know what you are thinking about the philospophy in general. And don’t forget to drop ol’ BBB a line thanking him for working hard so Hawk doesn’t have to

Lazily,

- Hawkwind